NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n
A great white shark was captured leaping from the water behind a boogie boarder in Newport Beach, Calif.<\/p>\n
The boogie boarder was unaware of how close the shark was, according to his brother-in-law, who filmed the encounter<\/p>\n
Shark bites involving humans are \u201cextremely rare\u201d in California, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife<\/p>\n
Shark Week 2026<\/a> is starting with a bang.<\/p>\n A great white shark was captured leaping out of the water behind a boogie boarder off the coast of Southern California on Saturday, July 25, just ahead of the start of Shark Week 2026.<\/p>\n Soaren Stevenson told KTLA 5 News<\/a> that he was filming his brother-in-law boogie boarding near Lifeguard Tower 40 in Newport Beach at around 6:30 a.m. when the shark suddenly emerged from the water in the distance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were praying on the beach, and we were like, \u2018Hopefully a miracle happens. That\u2019d be super-cool [if] a miracle happens,\u2019\u201d Stevenson told Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n At first, Stevenson wasn\u2019t even sure what he had captured. It wasn\u2019t until he zoomed in on the footage that he realized what had jumped from the water, he told the outlet.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018That\u2019s not even a dolphin \u2014 that\u2019s a shark,\u2019\u201d Stevenson said.<\/p>\n No one else on the beach appeared to notice the shark \u2014 including his brother-in-law, who was still out in the water, according to Stevenson.<\/p>\n \u201cHe definitely didn\u2019t know how close it was,\u201d Stevenson said of his brother-in-law.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of surreal to think that the shark is in the same waters as my [brother-in-law], and he didn\u2019t even know it,\u201d Stevenson told Fox News. \u201cIt just makes me realize that when you go out there to surf, you can come way closer to such a beast than you ever think you [would].\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the close encounter hasn\u2019t changed how Stevenson feels about getting back in the ocean.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they want to eat us,\u201d he said, adding that the experience would not deter him from going into the water, according to Fox News.<\/p>\n While the shark\u2019s leap may have looked dramatic, it was likely breaching to scratch an itch or simply \u201cfor fun,\u201d Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology and director of the Cal State Long Beach Shark Lab, told KTLA.<\/p>\n Despite their fearsome reputation, incidents in which sharks bite humans are \u201cextremely rare\u201d in California, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since 1950, fewer than 250 shark incidents involving multiple species have been documented in the state, the vast majority of which involved white sharks. Fewer than 20 were fatal, and all of the fatalities likely involved white sharks, according to the agency.<\/p>\n